Senate Confirms Republican Trusty to FCC Through June 30; Most Democrats Oppose
The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to the FCC Tuesday on a largely party-line, 53-45 vote, as expected (see 2506130065). The vote covered only her nomination to finish the term of former Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, which expires June 30. The chamber planned to vote Wednesday to confirm Trusty to a full five-year term, which will begin July 1. Lobbyists expect the Senate to approve her for the additional term by a similar margin. Once sworn in, Trusty will shift the FCC to a 2-1 Republican majority. The simultaneous resignations earlier this month of Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington and Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks left the agency without a quorum and in a 1-1 tie (see 2506060051).
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Only one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, joined all present Republicans in supporting Trusty on the floor. Lobbyists had expected almost no Democrats would back her after Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington told us Monday night that she would oppose the nominee (see 2506160061). Cantwell and Fetterman were among six panel Democrats who voted to advance Trusty in late April (see 2504300047).
“I thought we were going to pair” nominees to entities like the FCC, including a Democratic replacement for Starks, but President Donald Trump has thus far not nominated any Democrats to those agencies, Cantwell told us Monday. She and several other Senate Commerce Democrats noted the issue when the panel advanced Trusty in April. Such pairings might have “gone a long way” toward persuading several Democrats to back Trusty, Cantwell told us Tuesday. She added that she and others are also concerned that policy decisions in a GOP-majority FCC will come “directly from the White House.”
“Although I respect [Trusty's] professional background, when I spoke in support of” the nominee during the April Senate Commerce meeting that advanced her to the floor, “I explained that my support was not absolute,” Cantwell said Monday in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., which lobbyists said was aimed at shifting Democrats against Trusty.
Cantwell remains “seriously concerned that this Administration will try to illegally terminate Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, refuse to nominate any Democratic replacements, and then operate the Commission on a strictly partisan basis,” the letter said. “Troubling developments in the reconciliation process have also reinforced my policy concerns about restoring a Republican majority” at the FCC, including what Cantwell called Republicans’ “reckless approach” in their House and Senate spectrum proposals (see 2506060029).
Cruz: 'All Politics'
Fetterman, who has supported many of Trump’s other nominees, offered no clear explanation for not joining Cantwell and four other Democrats who backed Trusty in April but flipped to oppose her Tuesday. “The vote will speak for itself,” Fetterman said. He was the sole Democrat who voted in early April to advance NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth out of Senate Commerce (see 2504090037).
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, one of seven Commerce Democrats who voted against advancing Trusty in April, told us Monday night that he would remain opposed to her if Republicans are “just going to try to ram [the nominee] through” without a Democratic pairing. “The administration should take this seriously and make sure that every one of those positions are filled for the good of the country,” he said. “I don't understand why it's a political hotbed issue not to have a full FCC and why this administration may not be marching in that direction.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, another Senate Commerce Democrat who backed Trusty in April, echoed the pairings issue as the main reason he voted against her Tuesday. Trump is “not replacing” retired Democrats at the FCC and other agencies, he told us. “So somehow we've got to try and get their attention, [because] that commission is meant to be bipartisan.” There “are lots of Democrats to choose from,” Hickenlooper said. “They don't have to boycott them. But that appears to be what they're doing.”
Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said “it's all politics all the time [for Democrats], and I think [it's] unfortunate” that it led almost all of them to vote against Trusty. “I think the Democrats are angry right now,” he told us. “They are lacking a substantive policy agenda other than rage and hate for” Trump. Trusty “is unquestionably qualified,” Cruz said: “The Democrats talk incessantly about wanting to have racial and gender quotas, and yet they happily vote against a very qualified African American woman.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us most Democrats who opposed Trusty on Tuesday “knew she was going to be confirmed [even without their support] and were just trying to give [Cantwell] some cover.” There's “widespread, almost universal, admiration” for Trusty, said Wicker, who in November recommended that Trump nominate her to the FCC (see 2411220045). Trusty has been a senior GOP aide for Senate Armed Services while Wicker has been its top Republican.